The Life Line
Published on 14. March 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-7398794-0-2 (ISBN)
Description
Mark Chalmers, 36, dark haired, athletic, keen on skiing and winter sports, speaks fluent French and German and has a taste for wine, food and women. Sounds familiar? It is 1938, pre the Munich Agreement and post Anschluss. Chalmers, a master at Eton, is recruited by an old friend at the Foreign Office and introduced to his boss B . Chalmers reluctantly agrees to take on a hazardous mission for British Intelligence to parachute into Nazi-occupied Austria and pass on information to a British agent. In case of trouble he is given a suicide pill. Chalmers has no intention of committing himself beyond this one job but once he reaches his destination, he finds himself sucked into the cause fighting fascism with the Austrian-German Underground - until there is no turning back.
Reviews / Votes
'The book is certainly worth reading for all those interested in mid-century adventure fiction and also for the background to Bond. I would recommend reading it.' - The Critic. The British novelist Phyllis Bottome is almost forgotten but Bond fans owe her a debt The Lifeline is still a cracking read. Top marks to Muswell Press for bringing he book back. - Best New Thrillers, Financial Times. A fascinating reissue of a 1946 spy thriller but also a possible, hitherto ignored major inspiration for Ian Fleming s James Bond. Fascinating stuff but, regardless, The Lifeline proves a jolly good read!' - Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time. Try the latest James Bond spin-off, .. reissued 1946 adventure by Phyllis Bottome, a mentor to Ian Fleming A well-wrought period piece that Fleming completists will enjoy . - The Best Thrillers to Read in April, The Times. A thriller of a highly diverting and original kind, long overdue a new lease of life. - Sunday Post. I read Phyllis Bottome s The Life Line and saw that Mark Chalmers was Fleming, and that he had turned Chalmers into Bond. - Nigel West. 'Good entertaining and rewarding reading. - Kirkus 1946.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 193 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
348 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-7398794-0-2 (9781739879402)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Phyllis Bottome was a highly regarded prolific author in the mid 20th century. With her husband Ernan Forbes Dennis, a former diplomat and spy, she set up a school in Kitzbuhel, Austria and it was there, after he was thrown out of Eton, that she taught Ian Fleming to write. Amongst her many bestsellers was The Mortal Storm made into a prescient anti-fascist film which became a Hollywood blockbuster starring James Stewart. She died in London in 1963.